(23/07/01)Bonjour mes amis, et bien venu a le transmission de la Backpackers Broadcasting Corperation, c'ete foir nous vous arrivent (apo) le petit iles de Moorea dans Tahiti.
Communication here is difficult. A ghastly blend of French and Greek (Freekish, as it is aptly known) renders us fairly incomprehensible and all involved eventually give up and resort to the international language of gesticulation. For those of you who haven't been to French Polynesia (gloat, gloat) the best way to imagine it is to close your eyes and picture bone white beaches with tropical palms leaning seawards, heavy with young ripe coconuts ready to drop off in a light breeze and concuss some unsuspecting tourist.
Tahiti is just as it is shown in the film. As we descended from the aircraft, the first things to hit us (except for the warm wet wall of tropical air) was the sound of ''Underneath the Mango Tree'' being strummed out by the red eye shift welcoming committee. A few steps further on, the flower garlands were being handed out, one each for first and business class passengers, and one to share for the economy class. Did the French not learn from the guillotine?
Many of French Polynesia's islands are very volcanic in nature, Tahiti especially, and as black sands and deep water are not conducive to swimming and beach lolling, we took a 45 minute ferry-ride west from Papeete to Moorea, the closest island to Tahiti itself, though worlds apart. Here we stayed in one of only two or three backpacker accommodations on the island (Tahitian tourists are with very few exceptions those excrutiatingly rich ''Sheraton'' or ''Club Med'' types) however it rates an easy eight out of ten on the paradise scale (it would have been nine were it not for the owners welcome, as sweet as a Glasgow kiss).
An early morning lurch from our cabin plonks us right on the beach mentioned in the opening paragraph. A clear, still azure blue lagoon surrounds the whole island, hemmed in by a coral reef about 200 metres offshore. As the ocean waves of the Pacific gnash on the outisde of this, the inside is millpond calm and abundant with tropical fish. Only yesterday Natalie unwittingly went for a dip with a four foot long sting ray, and at night you can hear and see the splashes of who-knows-what (as well as a couple of those in-escapable teenagers fresh from watching The Beach).